2. Introduction to CSS
• CSS stands of Cascading Style Sheets, used to describe
presentation or styles of web pages e.g.:
– Layout, color, font, borders, paddings, etc.
– Responsiveness – Mobile friendly user interfaces
• World Wide Web Consortium W3C develop and publish CSS
Specifications. The specification is used by web browsers,
publishers and developers etc.
• CSS can be embedded in HTML page or attached as an external CSS
file.
• How much CSS one should know: depends on objective e.g. front
end developer, backend developer, full stack developer.
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3. Selectors
• Rules/syntax to select page element/s to apply CSS properties.
• Code structure to declare style or CSS properties:
– selector {property1: value1; property2:value2;…}
• There are three basic types of selectors:
Tag Name, Tag ID, Tag Class
• Examples:
1. p {color: red;}
2. #name {font-size:20px;}
3. .alpha {font-family: arial;}
• Some other selectors: nested/child, immediate child, universal,
attribute, etc.
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4. How to add CSS in HTML page
• CSS can be added to HTML page using following
ways:
– Inline Using style attribute of the element
– Internal Using <style> element,
usually in <head> section
– External Using external CSS file. Link tag to
used to attach external file.
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5. Properties for Color, Size, Font
Color
• Background-color
• Color
Size
• Height
• Width
Font
• Font-family
• Font-size
• Font-weight
• Font-style
https://www.chromestatus.com/metrics/css/popularity
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7. CSS Box Model
• Elements are renders as rectangular box. Box
size is calculated using following sizes:
1. Content
2. Padding
3. Border
4. Margin*
• By default, specified width and height belong to
content area. We can set to border-to-border
(inclusive) using:
box-sizing: border-box;
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10. Styling Hyperlinks
• Link States
Link
Visited
Hover
Active
• Link state properties
A:Link
A:Visited
A:Hover
A:Active
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11. Positioning
• Static – Its default. Elements aren’t positioned
• Relative
• Elements are placed relative to its default position i.e.
from where it would normally occur. It still occupies the
original space in document, so incorrect use may cause
subsequent elements be hidden.
• Absolute
• Remove the element from document flow and places as
per positions specified w.r.t. page. It do not occupy the
original space.
• If you want to position an element w.r.t. container, the
container itself must be relatively positioned (used to
place contents over components).
• Fixed - Fixed with reference to page
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12. Website Layout
• Template or structure of a website. All pages generally
follow common layout for quality user experience.
• Table and div tags can be used to implement layouts
• Tables objective is not layout creation
– Tables are mostly used for tabular data
– Creates code smell for complex templates (refactor)
– Consumes more bytes of markup
• We prefer div over table for layout
• Float and position are important properties to make div
based layouts
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13. Styling Lists
• How to style ordered and unordered lists?
• list-style-*
type (none, disc, circle, square, etc.)
image (url(‘image-name.ext’))
position (outside, inside, initial, inherit)
List-style-* properties using single line:
list-style: circle url("texture.jpg") inside;
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14. Creating Navigation Bar using List
• We can create navigation bars and drop down
menus using list tag (i.e. ul, ol), by applying CSS
properties
• Remember following points from inline and block
elements topic:
– We can’t apply top and bottom margins, width
and height properties to inline elements
– Default ‘display’ of li tag is list-item. We must
override to bring list items in single row.
– Use inline-block to apply sizing properties on
inline elements
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15. Floats – 1 of 4
• Block elements take 100% width of container
(when width is not specified). They do not allow
elements on right or left [1].
• Float property changes the way a block element is
laid out by the browser. These are taken out of the
normal flow and then placed back following some
rules.
• Float property can be applied to block elements
e.g. div, p, etc. Float applies with respect to
container. Usage: float:right; float:left [2_0 to 2_1]
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16. Floats – 2 of 4
• Floated block elements shift to above row, when
space is available. If there is not enough space,
elements are shifted down automatically [2_2].
One element properties, may effect the others in
layout.
• Container fails to calculate height when it contains
floated elements only. We apply some CSS to force
container draw itself correctly. [2_3 and 2_4]
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17. Floats – 3 of 4
• Block elements before a floated element do not effect
[3_0]. But when upper element is applied float property,
bottom non-floated elements would wrap around [3_1] i.e.
float my effect, non-floated elements.
• If bottom elements are also floated, they would shift
below when content is large [3_2]. Use width with floated
elements [3_3] for predictable behavior.
• If you want to stop non-floated elements to wrap around
the floated elements, you need to clear the float. [3_4]
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18. Floats – 4 of 4
• ‘Clear’ forces the element to shift down, even when
it can adjust. clear:left allows no element be placed
on left. clear:right allows no element be placed at
right. To make both sides clear, use clear:both
[3_4, 3_5]. Remember box model, see [3_5] again
• While content will wrap - border, background image
and background color will extend underneath [4_1].
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19. Flex Container Props
• flex-direction
– 4 options
– row | column | row-reverse | column-reverse
– E.g. flex-direction: row;
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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22. start and end - not left and right
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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23. Flex Container
• Direct children of flex container are called, flex items. If we do
not specify flex-direction, items display in a row, as its default
value. 1x.html
• The items start from the start edge of the main axis. See
1x.html
• The items do not stretch on the main dimension, but can
shrink. See 1x.html
• The items will stretch to fill the size of the cross axis. 1x2.html
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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24. Positive and Negative Free Space
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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25. Flex Container Basis Props
• justify-content
– Its for main-axis
– Divide available space b/w items. See 2x.html
– How to divide positive free space inside the item,
we would shortly see.
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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26. Flex Container Basis Props
• align-items
– align-items property work in cross axis.
– Think of it, justify-content version for the
cross-axis.
– There must be some free pace in cross axis. In
other words, there must be height or width
specified for container. See 3x.html
– If there is space in cross axis, and you do not
specify the align-items, the items would stretch.
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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27. Flex Container Basis Props
• flex-wrap
– By default, items do not wrap in cross axis with
container is resized, or screen size is small. Default
value is nowrap. See 4x.html
– Container cross-axis size auto change, depending
on space required by items.
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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28. flex-grow
• It defines, how the free positive space should
be distributed among items.
• See 9x.html
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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29. flex-shrink
• It defines, how the free negative space should
be extracted from items to fit them in
container.
• See 10x.html
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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30. Flex-basis impact on item-size
• Is flex-basis set to auto, and does the item have a width set?
If so, the size will be based on that width.
• Is flex-basis set to auto or content? If so, the size is based on
the item size.
• Is flex-basis a length unit, but not zero? If so this is the size of
the item.
• Is flex-basis set to 0? if so then the item size is not taken into
consideration for the space-sharing calculation.
Prepared By: Asif Shahzad, Assistant
Professor, CUI Lahore
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31. Media Queries
• Media Queries help in making responsive
design.
• We can apply conditional CSS on elements e.g.
apply certain CSS properties if screen width is
greater than certain pixels.
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